Michigan’s Democratic Party has made its formal presentation to again have the state be one of the first primaries in the 2028 presidential election cycle, with state Chairman Curtis Hertel Jr. saying, “The road to the White House runs right through our state.”
Hertel and other state party officials made their brief presentation to the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, May 27. The panel was hearing presentations from several states in four different regions of the U.S. − East, Midwest, South and West − and was expected to pick one from each to be the first states to vote for the party’s presidential nominee two years from now.
Michigan is competing with Iowa and Illinois in the Midwest region to be an early state in 2028 and was fourth in the voting calendar in 2024. And while the 2024 presidential primaries were largely quieted with then-President Joe Biden and former and current President Donald Trump dominating their parties’ tickets, the 2028 presidential race is expected to be wide open and potentially crowded.
In his pitch, Hertel argued that Michigan is traditionally a swing state but one that is more racially diverse than any other battleground state in the nation. Any investment in presidential campaigning in Michigan, therefore, has the potential to help the party’s nominee win the general election.
In response to a question, however, he also noted that even though on-air advertising can be expensive in Detroit, winning the state’s primary is not always a matter of who spends the most, recalling U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ primary win over Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016 in Michigan. “You don’t have to spend the most money to win in Michigan and I think we’ve proven that,” he said.
The committee is expected to make its decision in the weeks to come. Other states competing for the early slots are, in the East Region, Delaware and New Hampshire; in the South, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia; and in the West, Nevada and New Mexico. In 2024, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina and Michigan went first in the Democratic contests.
Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on X @tsspangler.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan Democrats make pitch to be early primary state again in 2028
Reporting by Todd Spangler, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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